1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a playback apparatus, a playback method, a program for a playback method, and a recording medium recorded with a program for a playback method thereon. For example, the invention can be adapted to a recording/playback apparatus which records and plays back a piece of programming of television broadcasting by using an optical disc. The invention improves usability more than before with regard to a mark for quick reference and playback by a bookmark, a chapter, and so on, in which a mark for quick reference such as a bookmark and a chapter is provided with priorities and updated and a user manipulation is not accepted for a mark having a low priority.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, in a recording/playback apparatus using an optical disc and a hard drive, functions of bookmarks and chapters are provided, and the apparatus is configured to improve user usability by these functions.
More specifically, for example, when video contents of television broadcasting are recorded and played back, this type of recording/playback apparatus sets a bookmark as a mark for quick reference by user manipulation. In addition, when a predetermined operator is manipulated by a user in playing a recorded piece of programming, the apparatus jumps a playback part to the subsequent bookmark or the previous bookmark.
In setting bookmarks in this manner, a method is proposed in which a bookmark is automatically set in recording a piece of programming by settings of detecting a scene change, a constant time interval, and so on. For example, JP-A-9-219819 proposes a method of setting a bookmark by using an electronic program guide.
In a DVD which is a so-called package medium and a playback only recording medium, video contents are offered with chapters set as marks for quick reference. Thus, in a recording/playback apparatus of playing back a DVD, the scenes having chapter are displayed in a list, the video contents are played back from the scene selected by a user, and a predetermined operator manipulation jumps the playback part to the subsequent chapter or the previous chapter.
However, for a mark for quick reference and playback by the bookmark or the chapter in these manners, there are unsolved problems in practical use with regard to usability.
More specifically, when a bookmark is set by user manipulation, a user is forced to do a manipulation to set a bookmark, which deteriorates usability. On the other hand, when a bookmark is automatically set, it is eliminated to force a user to do a manipulation to set a bookmark, but bookmarks undesirable for the user are set as well, which might deteriorate usability. In this connection, in automatic bookmark setting in this manner, when it is intended not to set bookmarks undesirable for the user, a bookmark may not be set at a place where the user needs.
The same thing can be said for the chapter as well. When chapters are set to all the scenes that many users want, for certain users, undesirable chapters are set, which rather deteriorates usability. In this case, when the number of chapters is decreased, desired chapters for certain users are not set this time.
Patent Reference 1: JP-A-9-219819